Second suspect arrested in Doug Carlile killing

A second man has been arrested by authorities in the Doug Carlile murder investigation.

Robby Joe Wahrer, 33, has been arrested on a charge of 2nd Degree Murder (Intent to Kill) and Conspiracy to Commit 2nd Degree Murder.

Spokane Police believe Wahrer was the driver of the van Tim Suckow used the night he allegedly shot and killed Carlile.

On January 30, 2014, a person identified in court records as a 'concerned citizen' approached detectives and said that they have known Wahrer for a long time and was present when he was watching television and a news report came on about the Carlile murder investigation. As the news report was being broadcast Wahrer claimed that he was the driver of the white van spotted in surveillance video that police were looking for in relation to the Carlile case.

That van was later positively identified and linked back to Suckow.

Wahrer also said he drove a person -- whose name he never mentioned to the concerned citizen -- to the South Hill and that this person he was driving was "only supposed to break Carlile's knee caps, not kill him."

This information was confirmed by a second 'concerned citizen,' who independently corroborated the substance of what the first individual told detectives, that Wahrer admitted he was the driver, that he was the getaway driver for Suckow, but that he had been told by Suckow prior to Carlile's killing he was only going to "break the guy's legs' and had no idea Suckow planned to kill him.

After Suckow was arrested, detectives executed a search warrant on his cell phone and found a phone number marked with the name 'Robby' listed with a phone number the first concerned citizen identified as Wahrer's number.

The morning of the killing Carlile and Wahrer exchanged texts beginning at 8 a.m. Carlile texted another man who was storing his guns, to arrange picking up some of his stuff, and texted back and forth Wahrer seven more times throughout the day. According to court records one of the last calls Wahrer received was tracked to an AT&T cellular tower that serves the neighborhood where Carlile lived. He received that call 10 minutes before Carlile was shot and killed in his kitchen.

Suckow, the man arrested as the prime suspect in the Carlile killing, reportedly bailed Wahrer out of jail five days after Carlile was shot and killed in his South Hill home on December 15, 2013.

A confidential information has told local authorities that a third man, James Henrikson, ordered and paid for the Carlile killing. Henrikson was Carlile's business partner in a North Dakota oil drilling venture.

The informant, a one-time employee of Henrikson's, said Suckow was recruited by Henrikson to kill Carlile for $20,000.

Henrkison has not been charged in the Carlile murder investigation. He is currently in custody in North Dakota, being held on an unrelated federal firearms charge.